1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording apparatus for forming an image on a sheet-shaped recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art:
In the past, in the recording apparatus of this kind, the order in which the successive recorded sheets are stacked is constant. Particularly with the recording apparatus which produces a great number of sheets, in order to make right the collation of the pages of the recorded sheets, it has been usual to carry out the stacking in such a way that in one-sided recording, the recorded side, or in two-sided recording, the side of latest recorded side, is oriented face-down.
For an example of a recording apparatus capable of delivering recorded sheets in correct page collation, mention may be made of U.S. Pat. No. 4,278,344.
It is also known in the art to provide even another type of recording apparatus in which, in the sequential recording mode for recording a series of different data, in order that the recorded sheets can be distinguished from data to data, after a sheet having one data recorded thereon has been delivered, a sheet having nothing recorded thereon is delivered as the partition paper, before the sheet having the next data recorded thereon is delivered, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Sho 55-161265.
However, in the above-described conventional examples, when the recorded sheets are to be separated into units of a series of data, to be specified by the assortment, to be allocated, or to be subjected to other handlings, there is a need to turn the pile of the recorded sheets upside down to confirm the contents of the recorded sheets. This necessity not only makes these handlings difficult and troublesome, causing the efficiency to decrease, but also gives an opportunity for accidents such as those of collapsing the pile of the sheets when it is being turned upside down, scattering them in all directions, improperly collating the scattered sheets when collected collected, or damaging some of the sheets themselves.
Also, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,528, there is disclosed another apparatus in which a set of original document sheets having thereon data to be recorded is preceded by a control sheet
having instructions for recording the document set. But this also does not improve the efficiency of the assorting or allocating operation of the recorded sheets in each data.